A Birthday to Never Forget

#RealTalk one of the reasons I started actual blogging is because I wanted to show more of my normal life with this  #YouMakeYou community.  I think it is so easy to get wrapped up what you see in those tiny 3 x 3 picture grids on Instagram and even easier to almost be fooled, without even realizing it, into believing that what you see and read in those tiny snapshots is someones full life…  It is not. Most importantly, it is not YOUR life and it shouldn’t be.   We choose the prettiest pictures, the most inspiring captions, and the happiest times because that is people want to see.  There is nothing wrong with that but where it does go wrong is when people idolize what they see.   We need to remember that from things like Instagram, Twitter, and even Snapchat, we are NOT getting the full story– not even near the full story.  We need to focus on ourselves and what we need defined by our own minds.  #YouMakeYou am I right?!

ANYWAY– long story short, I started this blog because I want every one in this community to know that:

YES I eat healthy and love making fun, clean recipes,

YES I workout,

YES I try to keep my YMY mindset and follow my heart

but, YES– I am human and my life is not just the above things.  It IS possible to have a healthy balance, in fact that is what YouMakeYou® is all about: finding the best, most self empowering way for YOU to live.

So, here I am, not sharing health, fitness, or mindset knowledge, rather my crazy ridiculous birthday adventures that I don’t think could ever happen again, even if I tried…

• Woke up 7:30, did my favorite stadium workout && finished with 21 burpees (20th birthday + 1 for good luck!)

https://www.instagram.com/p/BHpGLJaj-sN/?taken-by=colbytriolo_youmakeyou

• Went home, made some pumpkin’ oats, started to eat them and then didn’t feel hungry so I placed them in the fridge (WHICH as you will soon see, I came to highly regret #Hangry?)

insert free Dunkin coffee here 😉

•  For about a week me and my best friends had been planning on swimming across Cayuga Lake (cc. V large, at least 1 mile across)  for my birthday because HI WHAT ELSE WOULD WE DO?! #WeMakeWe  But the forecast said it was going to be storming all day so we were unsure if we would.  Luckily, it was sunshine-y all morning so we decided we would do it.  We met at one of my friend’s lake house and began our swim at 11am. There were 4 of us in the water swimming, and 2 in a canoe right next to us so we wouldn’t get run over and they holding extra life vests.  ONE HOUR LATER. No joke. We were guessing like 30-45 minutes max, but with the wind and current that lake was literally endless, we washed up on the shore, probably looking like we survived a shipwreck or something.  BUT WE MADE IT! Now, here comes the real story.  We made sure to check the weather before leaving and it wasn’t supposed to storm for at least 3-4 more hours; however, about halfway through the swim …

picture me in the middle of this lake, belly up.

• … the sky suddenly became eerily overcast.  It was cloudy, but dark clouds.  I remember thinking to myself “yep, I am going to die on my 20th birthday, this is how I go out”.   All I could think about was us  getting struck by lightning, or stranded in the middle of that vast lake.  Great  mindset, I know.  ANYWAY, we kicked it into #YouMakeYou state of mind and powered through to the other side of the lake.
• By that time, it had been a full hour and despite the forecast, the storm looked like it was coming early.  We decided it was best to send only two girls back in the canoe because they could make it in 20 minutes top, and the rest of us would wait or hitch a ride.   While they were making their way back I spotted a party boat launching, with no party on it.  I ran up to him and asked what he was doing and if he would like to save 5 girls lives AKA I told him the story.  He was all for it, his party had canceled.  We hopped in and made our way across the lake–which is a nice way to put it because we got stuck on a sandbar, were pushed by the wind, all that jazz.  
• We arrived safely on the other side and Dave (our hero) insisted we take a photo for him, little did we know that was the last access to a phone we would have.

Thank you nice man, Dave.

• We climbed ashore, but our 2 friends in the canoe had already arrived back, took all of our stuff (clothes, shoes, PHONES, car keys, etc), locked up the house, and started to drive 40 minutes to the other side of the lake where we ‘were’.
• Honestly, I am not sure how people survived years ago without phones and easy communication because we were so frazzled to say the least.  Think about it– how the heck were we supposed to get to them, or get anywhere.  Needless to say, it was past 2, nobody had eaten, nobody had coffee.  It all seemed like a nightmare.
• Luckily, one of my friends had left her keys in her car. ALL HAIL CATIE!  We all hopped into her car, no shoes no clothes no nothing, and set off for The Commons (the college town in Ithaca).  On the way, Catie found her laptop in the car.  We arrived to the Commons 20 minutes later, and 2 of us ran into Starbucks to get Wifi, looking like lunatics to say the least.
• We ended up being able to iMessage the two friends driving to get us who were at the other side waiting for us.  Since we had gone through so much already we decided to tell them to meet us at the top of the parking garage because why not make The  Hangover part 5?  I mean, we were already in our bathing suits, sunburned, hungry, wiped out, but still getting slight kick out of it.
• Our friends arrived to the top of the parking garage about 15 minutes later to find us blasting music from the car stereo and dancing around in our bikinis.  Slightly out of boredom, but mostly out of hoping it would lessen their anger– of which it did 😉

 

 

• After getting over the craziness that just happened, we feasted on some Thai food.  It was 4pm, almost eveyone’s first meal of the day… we all passed out soon after.
• After a nice nap back at the lake cottage we rallied for some (soy) ice cream and rainbow spranks OBV (why didn’t I take a picture ugh sorry).
• Then some night festivities post-ceded by streaking across the arts quad on campus #161ThingsToDoBeforeYouGraduate #ThisIsABigDealImJustTryingToBeCasual .

Looking back, I don’t think I could have even imagined a better birthday.  It was the most spontaneous, happy, and utterly FUN (&funny) day I have ever had.  Thank you to my wonderful friends who I literally do not know what I would do without, ya’ll brighten my day on a daily basis and are simply amazing people.  And I want to thank all you for wishing me a happy birthday and for reading my rambles on a daily basis.

PS. It never actually stormed, so that’s fun.

PPS ALWAYS REMEMBER, YOU MAKE YOU & we make we 😉

 

xoxo, Colby

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